Surprises
by Zamael
Summary: Postwar. Both Aang and Aunt Wu have several surprises ahead of them, when the former one decides to make a visit for the latter.


A/C: Though this one is a oneshot, it just might spawn something bigger later on.

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Here's a bit of secret inside information, don't tell anyone: Whenever she had some free time, not reading anyone's fortunes, Wu closed her inner eye compeletely. True enough, she had been given a gift, and she saw it as her responsibility to use it to help people, but she herself preferred life to remain as a mystery. She took it as it came, with all its little surprising twists and turns, ups and downs, because a major part of fun in living was not knowing what was ahead. What fun was reading a book if you already knew what happened next?

"Hi, Meng," came a sound from downstairs, followed with something crashing on the floor. Case in point: Had she seen this coming, Wu would not be smiling now. She wouldn't say, exactly, that she had never expected to see this particular visitor again, but she could say that she didn't foresee his return - if the visitor was who she thought it'd be, of even that she wasn't compeletely certain. Although the voice was slightly deeper than the last time she had heard it, Meng's reaction was more than enough to tell anyone, seer or not, the identity of the one waiting her downstairs. She was once again surprised - well not really surprised, but you get my point - when she almost crashed to Meng at her door:

"Aunt Wu! You never guess who-" She stopped. "Oh, right, you saw him coming already, didn't you?" She frowned at her. "Why didn't you tell me? I hate surprises like that!"

"But dear, life is nothing without surprises," was Wu's response, stroking her assistant's messy hair. "I did not see him coming, either. In fact, I don't think I could have even if I tried."

Meng looked surprised. "How come? You know everything!" Wu chuckled: So much like I used to be, she thought. So naïve.

"Not even close," she said, smiling. "And this one has power over mine, anyway."

And she left the bemused girl in her thoughts, heading downstairs to meet the visitor - who, sure enough, was the one she had been expecting. Since their first meeting less than a year ago, Avatar Aang had grown up, from a small, uncertain, and goofy little kid, who had no idea of the scale of his destiny and whom no one would have thought to be the Avatar, into, well, slightly less small, confident, not-quite-so goofy kid, compeletely prepared for his task and oozing of spirituality and authority. Not that she was surprised of any of this - saving the whole world does things to a boy - nor was she any bit surprised of Meng's reaction, either.

"Nice to see you again, Aunt Wu," he raised his hand to greet her. "How're you doing?"

"Oh, I'm doing just fine," responded Wu casually, "and so are you, apparently. But I do not see your friends. I would have expected to see them here with you, at the very least the young water tribe girl." The last four words carried just the slightest amount of malice, but Aang didn't seem to notice anything. His smile fell a little bit.

"Yeah, uh, we had to split up. They wanted to go see their family at the south pole, and I would've wanted too, but, you know, I'm on an important mission."

"I see." She was fairly intelligent woman, and had of course understood straight away, already when she had heard Meng dropping her tray, along with its full tea can and cups (they were still on the floor: No one had remembered to clean them), what he was doing here. "You are here for the air nomads, are you not?"

"Yeah," he admitted. "I had no idea where I should start, and then I thought about you: I mean, if you can see to the future so well, then shouldn't you see to present, too, and be able to tell me if somewhere there'd still be airbenders left or something?"

Wu smiled: Once again, her incredible, non-fortunetelling deduction skills had done their job. "Why, young Avatar, I would not want to hold back the balance of the world. That would be just rude! Follow me, and we will get this over with."

She led him to her room again. It was almost exactly like he remembered it - although the only things he did remember were the fireplace, and the small table with bones on them. And cozy pillows, on one of which he sat. She landed on another one, next to him. "Am I going to throw bone to the fireplace again?", he asked.

"No, not this time," Aunt Wu corrected patiently. "We are not reading your fortune here. We are trying to find your people, or what is left of them. And mind I add..." She sighed heavily. She hadn't done anything like this for many years: She wasn't sure if she had it in her anymore. "...That seeing the present is far more difficult than seeing the future. Usually, I look for some single detail from a little time ahead - Tomorrow, next week, perhaps - which is very easy. It is only a single, small bit of reality that I concentrate on. But what you are asking, is to search the entire planet for something that might not even exist!" He opened his mouth, and she continued before he could say anything on between. "It is a difficult and tiring task, but if there is someone in this world who can do it, then I can."

And she put two fingers right on the middle of his forehead. "It is good that you are here, in person." She closed her eyes. "Because for this, I am going to need someone with a very strong bond to those I am trying to search. And who else would that be if not you?" She took a single long, heavy breath. "Let us begin."

What had he expected? He wasn't exactly sure, but somewhere in his mind, he was certain there would have been something: A horrible mental blast thingy, his soul leaving his body, at least some spiritual humming noise, something. But he was surprised to find that there was nothing, apart from perhaps a small tingle on the spot the fortuneteller was pressing his arrow. Aunt Wu had her head down, though, eyes still closed, and was breathing very heavily, in long, deep inhales and exhales. As minutes went by, she just looked more and more tired, with sweat drops forming on her face, her posture getting worse, and her mouth opening wide as her breathing started to look like it took a lot of effort. He wondered if he should stop this: It really started to look like her health would be in danger. But before he could seriously consider this, she opened her eyes.

Aang felt excited and impatient to hear the answer, and even with his unquestionable love to everyone, and the slight bit of pain his heart felt for the old seer, it took him some effort to let her catch her breath in peace. Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, she sat back on the pillow, and said out loud three words Aang had came here to hear. "I found them." Aang's face brightened considerably, and he smiled. "There are two major trails: On Eastern Air Temple, one airbender, very young at the time, survived. Growing up, she became a legendary figure, known as 'Ghost Witch', who took her vengeance against the Fire Nation forces, assaulting against them many time over the years. She is the only other living airbending master on this world. Look for her in the mountains of the western Earth Kingdom. I cannot give exact details of this." She had another break: Clearly, the effort of finding the nomads had greatly taxed her.

"The second you know very well," she finally continued. "The refugees at the Northern Air Temple."

Once again, Aang was pleasantly surprised, though also confused. "But, they're from the Earth Kingdom. How's it possible for them to learn airbending?"

"I thought you would know already," the seer answered. "They live like airbenders. They have the same carefree set of mind your people had. And they spend much of their time in the skies, and living in your ancient home also helps a bit."

"I... Guess that makes sense." It _did_ make sense, now that he thought about it. Why hadn't he realized it earlier? "Anything else?"

She breathed again, heavily. "There are numerous smaller trails of, what you could say, the compelete opposites from those of the Northern Air Temple: Your people, nomads in nature, sired many children in other nations, children whose heritage was unknown, and who survived the genocides. They, and their own children and grandchildren, may still retain some ability for airbending." When the Avatar looked confused (though still very happy), she added: "What? Did you think that your people would not have sexual relations on any of their journeys?"

A moment of silence. "Well...", he begun "I've never really thought about it, but I suppose it makes sense now. I mean, we were big supporters of freedom, and what's freedom if you can't... Y'know?" He stopped talking, but added almost immediately: "That was only the nomads, though. Not monks... Like me." Another silence, as a look of embarrasment spread on his face, nearly overcoming the happiness he had felt for finding his people. "I don't think the monks would be very happy to hear me and Katara being together." She laughed.

For the next hour, Aunt Wu talked about what she had seen, and Avatar Aang made notes. By the time she was done, he had more than a hundred names, not counting the Ghost Witch and the Northern Temple refugees. Aang looked at his list gleefully: When he had come here, he had thought she'd find him one or two people, certainly no more than a dozen, but instead he had hit in an unexpected motherload. He couldn't remember the last time he had been this happy (though it probably had something do either with the war ending or with Katara, possibly both). "Thanks, Aunt Wu!", he thanked, barely able to hold the laughter in his voice, as he stood from his pillow. "I owe you a big one!"

He hesitated, though: Wu was surprised to see that he didn't immediately rush out of the door. "Is the perhaps something else... That bothers you?", she asked, because what else reason would he had for hesitating after such wonderful news? And so she was not at all surprised when he sat back.

"Actually, there is this one thing. This might sound weird, but... Is it possible to change the future?"

"Hmm?" Now she was surprised again. She had thought he would have asked for another fortune. "What might you mean?"

"See, all your fortunes until now have been true. But what if you saw, say, that when I left your house, I would be hit by a brick to the head or something and died? Could I avoid that?"

Wu couldn't help but chuckle. She didn't remember anyone else to ever have even thought about this. A curious kid, this one was. "Mmm, yes. That is an interesting question. Supposed that after you heard the prophecy, you would try exiting through the back door, and then got struck by this mysterious brick out of nowhere...?"

"Yeah, that'd make it even more weird!", he agreed. "The prophecy would come true only because it was made! And that doesn't make any bit of sense!"

"Or, if I told someone that she would marry a powerful bender...?"

"Yeah, that'd make it sound like-" He stopped. A silence fell, as he considered this matter. Aang's face asked the silent question of if she had known him eavesdropping all along, while her face told the silent answer that yes, she had. Ultimately, they both remained silent over the matter, and eventually he continued. "It'd make it sound like Katara only loved me because of my bending. So what happened if I got into a freak accident and lost all my powers? Could she marry me anymore, then?"

"But then, I would have told her that she would marry someone who once was a powerful bender."

"Really?"

"Well... No, not really." She chuckled. "You see, with the free will and everything, there is not a single prophecy that would certainly come true. People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey... stuff. If I saw you dying from a brick out of nowhere after you exited my house, and remained silent, you could still have avoided your fate. Or you might have got hit, but survived. It is my duty, however, to help people, and thus I would have simply invited you to another cup of tea, to help you avoid it. My job is not only showing people what lies in tomorrow, but it's also to help them taking the correct paths. For instance, I personally have twice foreseen my own death, and used the information I got to save myself."

All this kind of talk really hurt Aang's brain, to be honest. Asked he: "So, when you saw Katara's wedding..."

"...I merely saw one possible future out of many," responded Aunt Wu. "It was among the most likely ones, might I add - and certainly among the most pleasant ones for her."

He considered about everything he had heard. "Thanks," he said silently, after a while. "I guess I was just a bit afraid I didn't have any choice about anything..." Another silence. "Well, I guess I'm off, then. Got a nation to rebuild." And he rose to his feet.

Wu waited until he was almost at the door before speaking: "Hold on." It was always a good thing to wait until the last moment with these things, for the maximum dramatic effect. "I have one last thing I feel I have to tell you."

"What?"

"It is about the fortune I told you last time. About the great conflict."

"Oh, the one about me and the Fire Lord? What of it."

"No," she said. "I already knew you were the Avatar, back then. And as such we both knew about your destiny. The bones never tell anything we already know."

A silence. Aang probably understood already what this was all about, but she finished anyway: "Your greatest battle is still ahead."

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A/C: Dun dun duuun!! I have to confess that I wrote the entire story so that I could tell you that last part. Don't hold it against me.

Also, Malu the Ghost Witch, whom I mentioned here, is a character from the Trading Card Game, and thus not really canon, and definitely not made up by me.


End file.
